Taliban shoot dead senior SC official

Dec 14, 2014, 08:07 IST
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Agencies

Head of secretariat, Atiqullah Raufi, was heading to work when the incident occured

Kabul: Taliban gunmen shot dead a senior Supreme Court official, Atiqullah Raufi, in Kabul on Saturday, police said. This is the latest insurgent attack in the Afghan capital as the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) force prepares to end its 13-year war on December 31 after it failed to thwart the Taliban insurgency.

“Around 9 am, unknown gunmen shot dead Atiqullah Raufi, head of secretariat for the court, as he was heading to work,” Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a text message claimed responsibility for the killing, but did not say why he was attacked.

On Thursday, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among the audience at a French Cultural Centre in Kabul, killing one German national and wounding 15 others. Hours earlier, another suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan troops in the suburbs of the city, killing six soldiers.

Other recent targets have included a female Afghan member of parliament, a British embassy convoy and three members of a South African family killed when their compound was attacked.

After NATO’s combat operations end, a follow-up mission of about 12,500 NATO troops will stay on in Afghanistan to train and support the local security forces now responsible for fighting the Taliban.